It’s Saturday night and neon beer signs are illuminating a well-worn pool table. A curvy woman with streaks of gray running through her long brown hair eyes her male opponent, thrusts her cue arm forward, and sinks the eight ball to a round of applause. The six or seven onlookers are glad she beat the guy, who now seems a tad embarrassed. Ten feet away, Mark Cutler sings a Rolling Stones song. “You’re outta touch my baby/my poor old-fashioned baby.” It’s tilting toward midnight, and Nick-a-Nee’s is pulsing. Some patrons are simply out to grab a little pleasure; some are, as writer Peter Watrous once put it, out to “dodge whatever law is on their tail.” Cutler’s music, vivid and potent, provides an apt soundtrack for this kind of scene.

Often, Cutler’s songs are telling snapshots of the unexpected disappointments, unusual achievements, and unassuming acts of kindness that pepper so many of our lives — he has a sharp eye when it comes to reflecting on how we all interact. Somehow, in this bar, on this evening, the music wafts through the air in an oddly fitting way. Whether driving his Men of Great Courage on a tune about a spooky midnight stroll, or gently declaring a deep camaraderie with “We Shall Always Remain Friends,” he’s concocting a soundtrack to the feelings in the room.

The 52-year-old rocker has been around the block a time or two. He spent most of the ’80s leading the Schemers, the acclaimed regional kingpins who bent punk and pop to form a sound both edgy and classic. After that it was the Raindogs, who made a couple of fetching discs in the early ’90s and toured with Bob Dylan, Don Henley, and Warren Zevon. For the last few years, Cutler has been in a pointedly active period. Five days a week he leaves his Riverside home for his software job in Boston. The weekends are reserved for gigs with one of his various ensembles. The Tiny String Band features bassist Jim Berger, accordionist Dick Reed, mandolinist David Richardson, and banjo player Bob Kirkman. The Men of Great Courage step it up a bit, rocking with the same personnel plus superb smacker Bob Giusti on drums. Cutler sometimes plays solo; his cozy breakfast shows at the Liberty Elm Diner enjoy an ever-increasing buzz. Then there’s Forever Young, the Neil Young tribute ensemble he shares with a scad of other local notables. And don’t forget the Dino Club and the occasional Schemers reunion and the visual art he enjoys making in his spare time. Suffice to say there’s no dust on this dude.

Ghost stories For all of the excitement that surrounded Wilco on the Maine State Pier or Sufjan Stevens at Port City Music Hall or the various sold-out Ray LaMontagne shows of the past year, there is no question that last Sunday's Phish show at the Cumberland County Civic Center was the biggest thing to hit our fair city in a very long time.

Winged migration Since their start in the middle of the decade, Brown Bird have been one of the region's go-to chamber-folk outfits, with a couple of dark and stormy albums earning them a following in various nooks of New England. The release of their latest album, The Devil Dancing , feels like both an ending and a new beginning.

Injustice for all Scott Sturgeon loses his train of thought a couple of times during this interview. He's loopy from jet lag — which is unavoidable after a 20-hour flight from New Zealand (halfway around the planet from his non-residency at a squatted apartment building in New York City), where he's just finished a tour with his claim-to-fame band, Leftover Crack.

Wanting more After its triumphant traversal of the complete Béla Bartók string quartets at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the Borromeo Quartet was back for a free 20th- and 21st-century program at Jordan Hall, leading off with an accomplished recent piece by the 24-year-old Egyptian composer Mohammed Fairuz, Lamentation and Satire.

Group hug Things aren’t always what they’re called — we know that flying fish don’t fly and starfish aren’t even fish.

Local heroes, ’09 edition The Rhode Island music community flourished in 2009, with new full-lengths from the Coming Weak, California Smile, and the pride of Cranston West and official big-leaguers Monty Are I, who released Break Through the Silence in September.

Local flavor Local journalist and acclaimed hip-hop scribe Andrew Martin has corralled a flavorful roster of Rhody-based rap talent on the Ocean State Sampler , 10 exclusive tracks available for free download.

Beyond Dilla and Dipset With a semi-sober face I'll claim that hip-hop in 2010 might deliver more than just posthumous Dilla discs, Dipset mixtapes, and a new ignoramus coke rapper whom critics pretend rhymes in triple-entendres.

John Harbison plus 10 Classical music in Boston is so rich, having to pick 10 special events for this winter preview is more like one-tenth of the performances I'm actually looking forward to.

Shout it out! Sharks Come Cruisin' founder Mark Lambert is a Warwick native with a penchant for reworking and penning sea shanties from centuries past, often revised with rollicking punk flare — all thanks to the golden pipes of Quint, the shark-obsessed skipper in Jaws .

TEN BEST BETS AT THE NEWPORT JAZZ FESTIVAL | August 01, 2012 The Newport Jazz Festival has been on a roll these last few years, blending the commercial clout of big names with the creative cred of adventurous newcomers.

20 DISCS YOU NEED | December 21, 2011 Astoundingly intricate notions rendered with a glowing attack on this solo disc by the NYC pianist. Perhaps its real triumph is the array of approaches it brokers throughout the program — each distinct, yet related.

THE BEACH BOYS | SMILE | November 02, 2011 Never doubt the impact of whimsy as it applies to Brian Wilson's art. At the peak of his powers — 1965-'67, let's say — the Beach Boys boss was a sage arranger/composer and bona fide pop innovator.